FACTS ABOUT NATURAL HONEY AND IT'S BENEFITS

This wonderfully rich golden liquid is the miraculous product of honey bees and a naturally delicious alternative to white sugar. It is available throughout the year. In addition to its reputation as nature’s nutritive sweetener, research also indicates that honey’s unique composition makes it useful as an antimicrobial agent and antioxidant.

The health benefits of honey — like all foods — depend on the quality of the honey. But in this case, the situation is even more extreme, because the pollen that collects on the bees’ legs as they move from plant to plant is only as healthful and as diverse as those plants.

In addition, the processing of honey often removes many of the phytonutrients found in raw honey as it exists in the hive. Raw honey, for example, contains small amounts of the same resins found in propolis. Propolis, sometimes called “bee glue,” is actually a complex mixture of resins and other substances that honeybees use to seal the hive and make it safe from bacteria and other micro-organisms.

Bee keepers sometimes use special screens around the inside of the hive boxes to trap propolis, since bees will spread this substance around the honeycomb and seal cracks with the anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal resins.

The resins found in propolis only represent a small part of the phytonutrients found in propolis and honey, however. Other phytonutrients found both in honey and propolis have been shown to possess cancer-preventing and anti-tumour properties. These substances include caffeic acid methyl caffeate, phenylethyl caffeate, and phenylethyl dimethylcaffeate.